oh what a depressing thread - I have a rising junior and have no idea how I'll be affording college.

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you child is within striking distance to HYP, then your child is a very viable candidate for merit money at top liberal arts colleges that are not NESCAC (Williams, et al).

For example:

Davidson
Wash U in St Louis
Washington and Lee
Claremont/Pomona/Scripps

I'm willing to bet your child would be more successful in life having graduated from one of those kinds of schools with no loans than from any school WITH loans.

Obviously this will only work if your child is truly top tier.

Washington University is among the least affordable of the top 20 schools. They don't give as much aid as the Ivies and it's expensive to go there. I wouldn't pay full ride for it and I'm an alumna.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think $20,000 for state school, $40,000 for private. $60,000 a year is too much and now they cost more than that. In a few years they will cost $70,000 a year. That is crazy.

$20K will not cover a state school for out-of-state tuition. I recall checking Michigan and UVA and both would be $50K. You could choose a small state school, say in Northern California, but it would have to be a very specific, reputable program for me to want to cover. Otherwise, I'd rather do Michigan or UVA and shell out $50K.

Some reasonably well-regarded state schools have much more affordable prices for OOS students. For example, OOS cost of attendance (tuition plus room and board):

SUNYs are around $30k
UMinnesota = $29k
Florida State = $33k
Wisconsin = $36k
Truman State = $21k

Wisconsin was listed as a best buy in the Fiske guide. It is strong in academics and in a very nice small city for college students. The best students in state go to Madison and it has about 35-40% of students from OOS. Many students from Minneapolis, Chicago, California and East Coast. It is good for a regular A/A- student and costs far less than IVYs and Michigan/California publics but still is known around the world.

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry OP, many of us feel like you. $60,000+ a year is a lot of money. I think HYPS, MIT, CMU if I had a vey motivated student. Maybe Penn for business. Otherwise State School.

MIT or Caltech, not HYPS.

I'd look very closely at schools using the ROI method:
http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/college-roi-2013/schools-by-type

^ and I'd pay for many of them rather than JMU & VT.

I would pay for any out of state national U ranked higher than GMU rather than go to GMU, CNU, ODU, Radford, etc

Anonymous wrote:pp here, okay it looks like out of state wildly varies:

6,800 GMU
26K Ohio State

So, I would need an educational consultant to sort through this.

You cannot look at the tuition prices. You must look at the total cost of attendance, including room and board and required fees. Also, make sure to note what the listed price is for. Some schools list the price per semester or term, rather than the price for the whole year. And finally, you must make sure you are looking at the in-state or OOS price, whichever is applicable.

If by GMU you mean George Mason, that tuition amount is not correct. For 2013-2014, tuition plus room and board at GMU is $39,377 for out of state, $20,693 for in-state.

Ohio State total cost of attendance for OOS is $36,526.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think $20,000 for state school, $40,000 for private. $60,000 a year is too much and now they cost more than that. In a few years they will cost $70,000 a year. That is crazy.

$20K will not cover a state school for out-of-state tuition. I recall checking Michigan and UVA and both would be $50K. You could choose a small state school, say in Northern California, but it would have to be a very specific, reputable program for me to want to cover. Otherwise, I'd rather do Michigan or UVA and shell out $50K.

Some reasonably well-regarded state schools have much more affordable prices for OOS students. For example, OOS cost of attendance (tuition plus room and board):

SUNYs are around $30k
UMinnesota = $29k
Florida State = $33k
Wisconsin = $36k
Truman State = $21k

Pomona, like top tier Northeast liberal arts schools, doesn't do merit aid, only need based. Wash U does do merit aid, but far less than it has in the past as its reputation has risen, and I would say it is probably as difficult to get into as places like Brown or Dartmouth.

OP, if you child is within striking distance to HYP, then your child is a very viable candidate for merit money at top liberal arts colleges that are not NESCAC (Williams, et al).

For example:

Davidson
Wash U in St Louis
Washington and Lee
Claremont/Pomona/Scripps

I'm willing to bet your child would be more successful in life having graduated from one of those kinds of schools with no loans than from any school WITH loans.

Obviously this will only work if your child is truly top tier.

...and again, that doesn't include room and board, though UVA and Michigan did. +$10K room and board at OSU.

pp here, okay it looks like out of state wildly varies:

6,800 GMU
26K Ohio State

So, I would need an educational consultant to sort through this.

Anonymous wrote:I think $20,000 for state school, $40,000 for private. $60,000 a year is too much and now they cost more than that. In a few years they will cost $70,000 a year. That is crazy.

$20K will not cover a state school for out-of-state tuition. I recall checking Michigan and UVA and both would be $50K. You could choose a small state school, say in Northern California, but it would have to be a very specific, reputable program for me to want to cover. Otherwise, I'd rather do Michigan or UVA and shell out $50K.

Anonymous wrote:we have decided that we would be comfortable doing in state. If they got in somewhere super impressive, we would try to make it work, but our kids know for something like that, they need some scholarships or they are going to one of the many awesome Virginia state schools.

FWIW, my DH and I went to state school and are doing great in our STEM fields, so we support state schools 100%!

Could have written this post myself. Virginia state schools all the way.

17:08 with a really bright kid and looking for merit aid, try places like Kalamazoo college. Huge study abroad program. Happy students who are treated well by faculty. Doesn't yet have the cachet that some of the other Midwest SLACs have recently gained. Thus, hungrier for top students and possibly giving more merit aid.